DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh has sent a formal request to India to extradite ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to New Delhi in August amid the student-led protests that ended her 15 years in power, the country’s foreign affairs adviser said Monday.
Md Touhid Hossain told reporters at his office in Dhaka that the country has sent a diplomatic note to India’s Foreign Ministry. “We have informed India about our request to bring her back for the judicial process,” Hossain said. He didn't give details.
India’s Foreign Ministry said it had received Bangladesh’s request but didn't immediately provide details.
Hasina fled to India after being ousted in a mass uprising in July and August in which authorities say more than 750 people were killed and thousands more injured. She faces many court cases over the deaths, including some on charges of crimes against humanity.
The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal has issued arrest warrants for Hasina and her close aides, and the government has sought help from the international police organization Interpol for her arrest.
Last month, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the country’s interim leader, said his administration would seek Hasina's extradition.
The interim government also has promised to try Hasina and others in her administration for alleged crimes involving the uprising against her and has invited the United Nations to help investigate the killings.
Hasina also called for investigation, saying many deaths may have involved others beyond security agencies.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina checks her watch as she waits for the official opening time to cast her vote in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police have a person in custody who is suspected to have set a woman on fire in the subway early Sunday and then watched from a bench as she became engulfed in flames and died.
Surveillance video showed the man calmly approach the woman, who was sitting motionless and may have been sleeping, while aboard a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station and then set her on fire.
Her clothing “became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds,” said New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, describing the case as “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being.”
The man then sat on a nearby bench outside the train car and watched as officers and a transit worker extinguished the flames. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
The man was arrested hours later while riding on the same subway line.
The suspect and victim did not appear to know each other and did not interact before the incident, police said.
Police have the man in custody but have not yet released his identity or filed charges.
Authorities had circulated images of the man from surveillance cameras and police body camera videos taken at the crime scene. A group of high school students tipped off police to the man's presence on a train later Sunday, and he was taken into custody.
He was wearing the same clothes and had a lighter in his pocket when he apprehended, police said.
Police patrol the New York City subways, and there are a vast network of cameras in stations and in all subway cars.
But the sheer size of the subway system — 472 stations with multiple entry points and millions of riders each day — make policing the transit system a logistical nightmare.
In Sunday's incident, officers were at the station but on an upper level patrolling a different subway platform. They responded after seeing and smelling smoke coming from the lower platform.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this year directed members of the state's National Guard to assist with random bag checks at certain stations.
Violent incidents in the subway often put people on edge, in part because many New Yorkers take the train multiple times a day and often have their own experiences with uncomfortable interactions in the system.
Broadly, crime is down in the city transit system this year compared to the same time period in 2023. Data compiled by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority show a 6% decline in what the agency calls major felonies between January and November of this year and 2023.
At the same time, murders in the transit system are up, with nine killings this year through November compared to five in the same time period last year.
High-profile incidents on the train, such as the case of Daniel Penny, a military veteran who choked an agitated New York subway rider and was acquitted of homicide this month, often attract national attention and further unnerve passengers.
FILE - New York Police officers clear a train at the Coney Island Stillwell Avenue Terminal, May 5, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, file)
